The Gathering IV
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley May 7, 2019
Artist – Collective
Distributor:
Released: April 2019
Running Time: 74:10
Website: https://imaginaryroadstudios.com/the-gathering-iv-release/
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In 2012 the first Gathering album was released to massive acclaim, winning the coveted ZMR Album of the Year. Two years on, Will Ackerman and Tom Eaton of Imaginary Road Studios choose another twenty-one artists to create The Gathering II (2014). The Gathering III followed in 2017, once again to great acclaim. The latest release The Gathering IV, (2019) consists of seventeen remarkable artists, with seventeen perfect pieces produced at the Imaginary Roads Studios over the past two years, now released to delight the ear and the soul.
This album is immensely beautiful; a lovely, intimately mellow ambience paramount in all the pieces that have been selected, crafting the impression that this one artist, one emotional collection, one perspective, such is the quality of the recording.
Lining up on this work are Masako, Jim Gabriel, Louis Colaiannia, Lawrence Blatt, Kathryn Kaye, Marika Takeuchi, Neil Tatar, Gina Lenee, Kelly Andrews, FLOW, Heidi Osgood-Metcalf, Vin Downes, Brenda Warren, Anne Sweeten, Matteo Palmer, Gary Schmidt and Richard Carr which, just by looking at the line-up of talent, is a sure indicator of what a treat is wrapped in the cover of this new release. Each of the pieces selected and the featured artists are award winners.
Many of the artist will be well known to Ambient music buffs, others perhaps not so well known, but regardless of your background knowledge, this is one incredibly beautiful collection that simply is right there in the moment, perfect for just about everything from background music, to easy listening, or simply just dreaming the time away. Perfection.
Will Ackerman and Tom Eaton, both stellar musicians in their own right, have over the many years with Wyndham Hill Records and Imaginary Roads Studio’s achieved almost ‘God like’ status within the world of New Aged Ambient music, which when work the standard of The Gathering IV is compiled as a sample of their talent and ability, is very easy to understand.
A perfect album of perfect music, from a new generation of music makers, which is simply divine and will become, amongst the many favourite works reviewed over the past years, a collection to be enjoyed over and over again.